Carnot Posey
|died= |placeofbirth=Woodville, Mississippi |placeofdeath=Charlottesville, Virginia |placeofburial=University Cemetery Charlottesville, Virginia |placeofburial_label= Place of burial |image= |caption= |nickname= |allegiance= United States of America Confederate States of America |branch=United States Army Confederate States Army |serviceyears=1846–48 (USA 1861–63) (CSA) |rank= brigadier general |commands= |unit= |battles=Mexican-American War American Civil War |awards= |laterwork= }} Carnot Posey (August 5, 1818 – November 13, 1863) was a Mississippi planter and lawyer, and a Confederate general in the American Civil War. He was mortally wounded at the Battle of Bristoe Station, dying from infection. Early life and family Posey was born near Woodville, Mississippi, the fourth of eight children of planter John Brooke Posey and Elizabeth Screven Posey. He attended the common schools and then graduated from college in Jackson, Mississippi, before studying law at the University of Virginia. He returned to his family's plantation and later established a law practice in Woodville. He married Mary Collins in May 1840 and they had two sons. However, Mary Posey died four years later. When the Mexican-American War erupted, Posey was commissioned a first lieutenant in the 1st Mississippi Rifles, a volunteer regiment commanded by future Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Posey fought at the Battle of Buena Vista, where he was wounded. Returning to Woodville after the war, Posey married Jane White in February 1849. They would eventually have six children. U.S. President James Buchanan appointed Posey as the district attorney for southern Mississippi, a post he held when the state seceded from the Union. Civil War Posey recruited a local militia company, the Wilkinson Rifles, and enlisted them into Confederate service, serving as their captain from May 21, 1861. They became part of the 16th Mississippi, with Posey being selected as the regiment's first colonel on June 4.Eicher, p. 436. Not long afterward, Posey saw his first action of the war in a skirmish near Corinth, Mississippi. He and his men were transferred to the Eastern Theater in August 1861.Some sources, such as Clement A. Evans's Confederate Military History, volume 7, and Mark Boatner's The Civil War Dictionary, place Posey at First Bull Run and Ball's Bluff, but Freeman, vol. 2, p. 419, and Wert, p. 51, point out that Posey and his 16th Mississippi were unlikely to have appeared at either battle. Posey suffered a slight wound at the Battle of Cross Keys during Maj. Gen. Stonewall Jackson's Valley Campaign in June 1862. His regiment fought through the Seven Days Battles with the Army of Northern Virginia under Gen. Robert E. Lee.Wert, p. 51. He served as the temporary commander of the brigade of four Mississippi infantry regiments, commanded by Brig. Gen. Winfield S. Featherston, during the Northern Virginia Campaign and the Maryland Campaign. Posey's regiment fought at Fredericksburg in December 1862, successfully repelling a Union attack. In the spring of 1863 Posey was promoted to brigadier general with date of rank of November 1, 1862.Eicher, p. 797. The promotion is referred to as "special" because of political maneuvering required when Featherston was on medical leave and then returned unexpectedly. See Freeman, vol. 2, pp. 263-67. The following May, Posey's Brigade saw limited action at the Battle of Chancellorsville, maintaining a reserve position at Salem Church. During the army reorganization following Stonewall Jackson's death, Posey's Brigade was assigned to Maj. Gen. Richard H. Anderson's division of the Third (A.P. Hill's) Corps. During the Battle of Gettysburg in July, the brigade was part of Anderson's July 2 attack on Cemetery Ridge, conducting a "feeble, disjointed attack that was repulsed." During the fall campaign, Posey was wounded in the left thigh by a shell fragment at the Battle of Bristoe Station on October 14, 1863. He was initially taken to Culpeper Court House for medical treatment. In an era with limited understanding of germs, infection soon set in. After a month's struggle to live, Posey died at the home of a friend, Dr. John Davis, in Charlottesville, Virginia, in November. Posey was buried in the Davis family plot in the cemetery of the University of Virginia. In memoriam The Carnot Posey Lodge #378 of the Masons was founded in 1875 and named in his memory. See also *List of American Civil War generals References * * Eicher, John H., and Eicher, David J., Civil War High Commands, Stanford University Press, 2001, ISBN 0-8047-3641-3. *Freeman, Douglas S., Lee's Lieutenants: A Study in Command (3 volumes), Scribners, 1946, ISBN 0-684-85979-3. * Warner, Ezra J., Generals in Gray: Lives of the Confederate Commanders, Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1959, ISBN 0-8071-0823-5. *Wert, Jeffry D., "Carnot Posey", The Confederate General, Vol. 5, Davis, William C., and Julie Hoffman (eds.), National Historical Society, 1991, ISBN 0-918678-67-6. Notes External links *Carnot Posey's restored 1845 home *Biography of Posey *Up Came Hill - bio of Posey * Retrieved on 2008-02-13 Category:1818 births Category:1863 deaths Category:Confederate States Army generals Category:People of Mississippi in the American Civil War Category:American military personnel killed in the American Civil War Category:University of Virginia School of Law alumni Category:American military personnel of the Mexican–American War Category:American planters